- Optional reading for prep. (workshop e.c.): Saper, “The Felt of Memory on YouTube” Enculturation 8 (2010)
- » Reminder Due (S 07-Dec) Project 3 Prep Notes Inventory (see list of items)
→ preparation for Studio workshops final week, led by groups
Stage III Assemblage Testimony
Project: “MemeMorial”
M 08-Dec Project Workshop — led by groups
- Review key instructions/method (from notes) & project components + propose specific composing ideas/techniques (digital rhetoric)
- Main topics: EmerAgency, network witness, assemblage testimonial, disaster (event), memorial consultation (for future, decision)
- For groups leading workshop: double participation credit — comment before class what specific component reviewing/proposing
(on-going discussion: Q&A before/during/after class in comments)
- “The term sociopoetic describes heuretic texts that use social situations or social networks as a canvas; intimate bureaucracies being a type of sociopoetic work. […] an aesthetic approach that asks to shift the focus from formal issues or cultural contexts or social scientific surveys, toward examining how situations function poetically” — Saper
W 10-Dec Project Workshop — led by groups
- Review key instructions/method (from notes) & project components
+ propose specific composing ideas/techniques (digital rhetoric) with examples - Main topics: Emblem (concetto), Peripheral, Network Interface (oracle function, individual + collective), consultation design for participatory culture
- For groups leading workshop: double participation credit — commentbefore class what specific component reviewing/proposing
→ on-going discussion: Q&A before/during/after class in comments
— including replies to students’ email questions
- Freeman (MFA, CU-Boulder!): Operation Greenrun II & Rocky Flats Then and Now
— School Shootings eMorial & Border Memorial - Global Forest Watch (description @ OpenCulture)
- Internet Live Stats
- Oracle: Googlism | MysterySeeker | TweetPing
- Relays for Peripheral (and Emblem? Oracle?):
F 12-Dec Studio Project Workshop — Works-in-Progress
- Due project in-progress:
site re-formatted; assemblage testimonal composed (10–20 entries + tags); emblem draft (sketch or collage images)
- Activity: peer feedback (digital rhetoric: arrangement/organization) & tech support
— discuss: multimodal composing (narrative, information, expression) + effects; working in Electracy;
design software + techniques
- Brainstorm: remaining components (emblem, peripheral, oracle interface); participatory poetics (MemeMorial) & network rhetoric (on-going discussion: Q&A before/during/after class in comments)
» Due (S 13-Dec) Project 3
— Poetics & Reflection due S 14-Dec
choragraphy (cognitive mapping):
“The Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, the same month Rocky Flats was shut down.“
— Freeman, “Rocky Flats Then & Now“
→ method: material link — across popcycle — via Rte 93 Billboards — mood of thought (attunement)?
DISASTER
Disaster
Event (singular, historic, specific)
include information from research — source (at least one)
use particular details as “iconic” → “emblematic” (of situation complexity: sacrifice, blindness/blindspot, value)
on-going problem (consultation for future/decision)
public policy (at least one example, from research — source)
references to current representations, organizations, resources, etc.
Narrowing down the disaster from the topic chosen is a matter of tuning into the underlying issue which has helped to escalate the problem. For example, my issue is education reform and the disaster I am trying to focus my project around is the abuse of standardized tests:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_26930017/hundreds-colorado-high-school-students-refuse-take-sate
1. Sacrifice: the creativity and uniqueness of each individuals learning style, strengths, and ambitions or interests.
2. Blind spot:Overpowering students with a multitude of standardized tests, especially during the high school or pre-college years, has drastically decreased the drive to think outside of the box.
3. Value:Our society is losing the value of uniqueness.Typically,the people who are successful are the ones who were able to maintain their creative thinking after exiting the education system, although society puts strong value on the ability to fit in and conform to the standards– leading to standardized tests.
Organization: http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/2014/201401280.asp
I’ll talk about reasoneon and disaster
I can talk about how the autobiography/family popcycle helped me to think the issue with a panoramic lens and how this along with exercise 4 ultimately led me to understanding what my emblem needs to embody
I can speak about the emblem
I’ll speak about Witness and how it relates to the Memorial
I’ll talk about the importance of the “traffic sphere” and how that relates to our Memeorials.
I will discuss Network interface — individual
Notes 12/8/14
Reasaneon: Factual + entertainment
–Need to have facts
–Entertaining + shocking components
Punctum
–Want disaster etc. to have meaning
–Bring it to life rather than try to solve it
–Evoke emotion/reaction
–First from me, then the reader, audience
Testimonial
–Link between option and crisis
–Crisis links to future discourses
–Use stories, events, incidents for project
–Something speaks to me personally goes in to the project–
–You should not make a MEmorial for ONE event
Topic = ongoing disaster
–Pick one incident to an emblematic status
–Use specific and concrete material for the testimonial
–Assemblage rather than just evidence
Spectacle: Take images and put it on display
OR
display the outrage
–How to make this serious
Network Witness = Archive
Testimonial:
–What we have been monitoring
–Old and New
–Witnessing –> to composing
10 — 20 posts
–Don’t use abstract, use specific
–Pattern, link, association
–Don’t want to look at issues as “unexpected”
–Start composing the testimonial/assemblage even if you don’t know the sacrifice/value
I’ll talk about the peripheral
Use peripheral vision to see what’s being overlooked (See the blindspot)
What value is being overlooked?
360 Degree view of the issue
Explore the circuit
What is the difference between narratives and autobiography under the testimonial section?
I can talk about the burning question and how that can be the means to recognize the sacrifice.
- burning question
– oracle and divination (other perspectives on the issue)
– using (felt) associations to create the pattern
Make a testimonial out of witnessing, network witnessing
We don’t have to worry about the audience understanding/ interrupting it
– People will get it (even if it is abstract)
– It gets clearly distinct as the truth
– Instead it is a consultation
To create a MEmorial for a Disaster
–an event that stands in for any event of loss whose mourning helps
define a community.
– Using the internet to display this MEmorial, or language.
–bringing something to life rather than discussing it.
–evoking emotion or a reaction.
–Using pictures to display evoke these emotions.
Rock climbing accidents.
testimonial: a specific event where an accident occured.
spectacle: display pictures, to form a reaction. Outrage, fear.
Oracle Function:
–appealing to both individual ‘problems’ and collective dilemmas
–Network knowlege both self and collective
–Ground consultation in present conditions
Question: How to apply presenting a personal question to a public issue?
Tentative Thought (feedback?): (Issue of gun violence) introduce story of family who has experienced gun violence (their personal experience/ testimonial) and then present/frame their loss as a loss to the community (from their school, workplace, social group, etc) with media/social network posts/images/etc
Individual Vs Collective Community
–Our goal is to turn this into one using Electracy
• The Internet accident– As citizens and users of the internet we have access to so many individual views and issues that the issue of over saturation has appropriated. The issue becomes what citizens pay attention to, and what they care about. “ Today the new technologies convey a certain type of accident, one that s no longer local and precisely situated…an accident that affects the entire world.”(xvii) This offers the idea of connecting the individual self with the collective community.
–use the sphere for civic engagement
– Traffic Sphere: a way to visualize the sacrifice as perceptible, thinkable, recognizable as sacrifice to shift them from the privae sphere of one at a time individual
personal loss to the public sphere of collective values.” (43)
–Sublime abuse– we need to testify and witness an event to shift the private problem to the public needs to be cumulative status rather than an individual status.
Network Interface
–We have to look at network ecology and our emblem to find a way to merge the individual with the collective while avoiding compassion fatigue and clicktivism.
–We have to make use of the interface we are given to the best of our abilities since it is limited.
How am I engaging with the issue — not affected directly but what is being overlooked
○ Why did that happen?
○ Taking a Panoramic View
» Reply to student’s email (helpful reminder for everyone):
[question about testimonial assemblage]
the 10–20 posts are fragments, composed using the lessons of Web (digital rhetoric) — like economy/speed and variety.
Text (quotes, information, explanation) + media (images, videos, audio) can be “sampled” with variety, just posting in the entry without explaining/describing (not needing to write about the media or info posted).
And like I said today, commentary/critique can be added through subtle additions like captions and tags.
The overall effect of the multiple modes (info, story, imagery) will convey the topic/theme (disaster as sacrifice).
This becomes clearer & more concrete once you start composing — especially the effect of connecting unrelated posts with tags.
» Email to student about composing method + topic/focus
• We talked about needing concrete visualizations (write with sensory details) for abstract concepts, like values and sacrifice.
Reflecting/meditating upon (mediating?) [topic] as sacrifice (to?) ― with implications and consequences. Testimonial = looking ahead to imminent disaster…
• drawing upon past events: use past disaster (specific story?) to illustrate & convey, especially the ideals/values (sacrifice? group blindness?)
• likewise, use media for sensory details & expressions & gestures ― like your project 1 GIFs (reactions, gestures, etc.)― to convey personal experience (lived dimension).
What to choose for these? whatever strikes you personally, by association, as meaningful & evocative…
― for instance, objective/visible signs of subjective/experienced condition (aspiration? anxiety?)
• in addition to information & images, story as another mode: narratives from any source (news, pop culture, social/autobio), which convey some idea of the topic/problem (sacrifice, blindspot, value?)
The example I gave was positive […] and provides counterpoint; I didn’t narrate in conversation, but I would in a fragment (post). As well, the story from memory (personal association) provides concrete details; these materials help visualize…
• like the phrase you mentioned (motto for emblem?), which is also imagery.
This is the key for the project, using mediations of concepts…
» Email reply about layout/design
see instructions + guide for composing, using WordPress (posts + pages): http://garyhink.net/course/F14/3020/assignments/project-3/project-3-design/
Also see:
» Site design
— re-format blog
→ see model site (*note: just example/illustration of layout, with partial testimonial)
Remember, re-formatting your site should take ~5 minutes (or less!)
for work-in-progress workshop Friday: site re-formatted; as many of the 10–20 fragments as you can post (assemblage testimonial), plus emblem (draft/sketch or images)
//
— just as we reviewed Wednesday: the main concepts & objectives (as elaborated on the Components page), appear within and across the 3 main sections: Testimonial, Emblem, Peripheral
(Poetics & Reflection separate pages and prompts)
» reply question, reminder of project components
1. “assemblage testimonial” through blog entries, arranged by tags and categories (choragraphy).
Not describing “story” (event) nor explicitly stating (on-disaster = sacrifice); rather, multiple modes, as we’ve reviewed this week:
part stories & collective language (orality); part information, about problem & policy for instance (literacy); plus expressive elements, evoking mood/atmosphere, and readymade materials (emblematic details or people) — re-purposed for performed engagement (electracy), demonstrating consultation.
Using multiple media and digital rhetoric for all cases.
Additionally:
Concetto (emblem: motto + collage image + epigram) can appear on a page (front page?) — plus in entries (component parts?)
Peripheral (page) = proposal for prototype (with illustration/diagram): location + Web/network interface (and/or digital device, like augmented reality eMorials by Freeman)
Poetics and Reflection = separate pages (like past projects; sub-pages under Project 3 menu)
email reply about the peripheral
(besides the installation added to the sculpture at Broadway and Pearl Street)
What about the participatory / meme aspect?
Maybe a replica — if not the actual digital mirror installation, at least displayed on a monitor (just look at the size of TVs being sold these days!) — in many towns across the country?
proposal could have instructions for how to choose the place (calling for participation)
and a final thought on the installation’s digital transition: perhaps a daily occurrence, or some time-line set by you not arbitrarily but with a certain number (like Ulmer does with the Traffic Sphere: the counter/ticker device at monument, 40k fatalities and then highway sirens go off)
Maybe not this basic or strict, but some measure to remind of the value and overlooking…
and as you say, because not reported or identified, good to use another measure:
example I showed in class, look at the daily YouTube and Instagram counters! http://www.internetlivestats.com/
(pick a threshold number, related to the issue/problem in terms of yearly incidents –> estimated daily occurrence?)
also from Friday workshop:
your Peripheral Proposal should explain the significance (of the place + network interface or mediation),
along with describing your imagined implementation (however hypothetical it is, not to worry about practical creation!)
and illustrating with media found or created
(image, video, GIF, audio, embedded Twitter or Instagram feed, links, etc.)
it is a description & illustration (or simulation, with link or embed): the proposal chooses a specific location (significant to the community but not necessarily a monument) to illustrate the blindspot of on-going problem (sacrifice/value/disaster),
using Internet device to display (digital projection, or whatever you envision, to bring collective/Web into view at specific location).
The proposal explains the rationale, significance, and intended effect (especially via participation).
→ remember to review examples from Ulmer (3 in book), Pappenheimer, Freeman
and to go beyond, designing for participatory culture (invitation from viewers to interact, create; re-purpose existing Web/Internet behaviors like hashtags, uploads, tagging…)
Ulmer’s examples (brief; review further):
1. “Florida Rushmore” — hologram projection over sinkhole, based on user/viewer input
2. “Traffic Sphere” — device at Vietnam War Memorial (this is the number of casualties “acceptable” to nation) with ticker/counter of traffic death; once reaching threshold number, sirens on highway
2. “Upsilon Alarm” — using Space Mirror, children’s names (deaths from child abuse) illuminated during eclipse, along with names of 24 astronauts (“heroes” sacrificed)
Pappenheimer — “Wishing Y” (pom-poms from wish website, entered by users); Ulmer updated theoretically to be illuminated based on the stock market, to show connection between finance and 9/11
→ FYI, this is probably most instructive for our purposes
Freeman — augmented reality displays: Border Memorial & School-Shooting eMorial (the backpacks are not arbitrary but the exact number of Sandy Hook students killed)
We want to go further than these installations, though, to use network interfaces (as “oracle”) and invite participation, drawing upon lessons of participatory culture — popular Internet behaviors and cultural forms
(see the most recent image on the course site, the top post; click for “oracle effect”…)
Basic layout tips from in-class troubleshooting:
* Static Home Page with “Entries” section:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/
* Custom Menu
http://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/
* Tag Cloud Widget
http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/tag-cloud-widget/
(remember to tag your posts thoughtfully with various words from project/issue; older posts can/should be tagged too!)